Sundance Cinemas to move into Angelika’s old digs

Cordish Co., a Baltimore-based development firm that has had a 55-year lease for the entertainment complex since 1997 at Bayou Place, signed a ten year lease this week with Sundance Cinemas.

The city, which owns the building, also participated in the negotiations.

“This is a coup for downtown,” said developer Ed Wulfe. “It brings one more level of entertainment to the downtown district that creates energy and interest and really can do a lot to serve the theater district.”

The new theater will open in November and the 36,000 square foot space will be remodeled to the tune of about $2.25 million.

Wulfe, who participated in the discussions on behalf of the city, said the remodeling costs will be split about evenly between the Downtown Redevelopment Authority, Cordish and Sundance.

According to a news release, there will be free parking as well as “drinking and dining choices, all reserved seating, digital stereo sound and presentation, filmmaker screenings and exclusive events.”

The agreement brings an independent movie house back to Bayou Place. The Angelika Film Center, an art house cinema, shut its doors after a dispute with the landlord.

Sundance Cinemas, owned by actor Robert Redford’s Sundance Group, has two other locations, one in San Francisco and another in Madison, Wisconsin.

By 1999, Sundance had broken ground on two theater complexes, one in Portland, the other in Philadelphia, near the University of Pennsylvania. But before either was completed, General Cinemas joined a long list of theater chains facing insurmountable balance sheet problems and declared bankruptcy in October 2000…

…With nearly $20 million spent, the Portland and Philadelphia projects were stopped. (They were finished and now are operated by other exhibitors.) Redford personally settled unpaid bills, and the cinema division died.

UPDATE: Wulfe said the lease calls for a percentage of sales to be paid back to the Downtown Redevelopment Authority if the theater meets a certain projected sales target.

“It could be $5 or it could be $100,000, depending on how well they do,” he said.

Negotiations lasted about eight months and there were discussions with four other theater companies, he said.